Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

As they negotiate the details of the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act, members of Congress should find ways to continue unemployment benefits and reject proposals to exclude children of immigrant families from the Child Tax Credit, said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The economy is still leaving too many people without work,” wrote Bishop Blaire in a letter to Congress on Feb. 9. “When the economy fails to generate sufficient jobs, there is a moral obligation to help protect the life and dignity of unemployed workers and their families. We also must protect those programs that help low-income workers escape poverty and raise their children in dignity.”

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

The direct action of San Diego Bishop Michael Pham is likely to leave a stronger impression in the minds of the public—and of the immigrants who are circling in and out of court—than any written statement.
Zac DavisJune 23, 2025
“This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes.”
June 23, 2025
Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican as they join him for the recitation of the Angelus prayer and an appeal for peace hours after the U.S. bombed nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran on June 22. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
“Let diplomacy silence the guns!” Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square a few hours after the United States entered the Iran-Israel war by bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
Gerard O’ConnellJune 22, 2025
Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool during the pope's meeting with members of the media on May 12 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV’s statement was read at the premiere of a play about the Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, who was subject to death threats because of her reporting on sexual abuse.
Gerard O’ConnellJune 21, 2025